Sunday, July 6, 2008

Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa

Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa (Mongolian language: Шаарийбуугийн Алтантуяа; sometimes also Altantuya Shaariibuu; 1978 – 2006), a Mongolian national, was a murder victim who was either murdered by C-4 explosives or was somehow killed first and her remains destroyed with C-4 in October 2006 in a deserted area in Shah Alam, Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur.

Early life

Altantuyaa was born in 1978. Her parents raised her and her sister while they worked in Russia where Altantuyaa started first grade elementary school. She was reportedly fluent in Mongolian, Russian, Chinese and English.

Altantuyaa moved back to Mongolia in 1990 and a few years later, married a Mongolian techno singer, Maadai. They had a child in 1996 but the marriage ended in divorce and the child went to live with Altantuyaa's parents.

Despite training as a teacher, Altantuyaa briefly moved to France where she attended modeling school before returning to Mongolia. She only modeled part-time, for a brief time also opening a tour business in Mongolia.

Altantuyaa remarried and had another child in 2003 but the second marriage also ended in divorce (this is questionable). The second child also lives with Altantuyaa's parents. Her mother said she has never been a model.

Murder

She moved to Hong Kong in 2005, allegedly becoming a professional escort[citation needed]. She was introduced to Abdul Razak Baginda, a defense analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre think-tank, at an international diamond convention by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, and reportedly began a relationship with him. Initial reports of Altantuya having a child with Abdul Razak have been proven to be untrue[citation needed].

Some sources allege that Altantuya came to Kuala Lumpur with a cousin in early October 2006 intending to confront Abdul Razak. When she went missing on Oct 19, her cousin lodged a police report and sought help from the Mongolian embassy in Bangkok.

The Malaysian police found fragments of bone, later verified as hers, in forested land near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. Police investigation of her remains revealed that she was shot twice before C-4 explosives were used on her remains, although there has been later suggestion that the C-4 explosives may have killed her. When her remains were found their identity could only be confirmed with DNA testing. The provenance of the C-4 remains unclear.

Abdul Razak and three members of the police force were arrested during the murder investigation. The two murder suspects have been named as Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. They had been members of the elite Unit Tindakan Khas (the Malaysian Police Special Action Force or counter-terrorism unit) and were both assigned to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who was also the Defence Minister at the time of the murder. Abdul Razak has been charged with abetment in the murder.

The trial was originally going to be held in March 2007, but was postponed until the 4th of June 2007. Due to controversial and last-minute changes in the prosecution and defence teams, and the presiding judge, the trial was again postponed until 18 June 2007. The pre-trial preparations have seen both the prosecution and defence teams level accusations of evidential impropriety at one another.

During the trial there was an incident between Baginda's wife and the victim's father.

Further Evidence

In a statutory declaration in his sedition trial in June 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (the wife of Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on Oct 19, 2006. He wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up.

Dr Shaariibuu Setev, the father of murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, has asked the police to conduct a thorough investigation into an allegation by Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin. He said the police should look seriously into the allegation by Raja Petra as it might provide them with fresh evidence. In retaliation, the two people named in Raja Petra Kamarudin’s statutory declaration on June 18, Lt-Col Aziz Buyong and his wife Lt-Col Norhayati Hassan, as having been present at the murder scene of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu are suing the Malaysia Today editor for defamation. Aziz is seeking an apology from Raja Petra to be published in certain websites and newspapers, the removal of the statutory declaration from his blog and damages of RM1 million.

A second statutory declaration was filed on July 1,2008 by Abdul Razak Baginda's private investigator P. Balasubramaniam, disclosing Najib's links to the murdered Mongolian girl. He said the police omitted information about the relationship between Najib and Mongolian murder victim Altantuya Shaariibuu in his statement. In the declaration Abdul Razak had told Balasubramaniam that the deputy prime minister had a sexual relationship with Altantuya and that the trio had dined together in Paris. Former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the case.

P. Balasubramaniam made a retraction of the statutory declaration he made on July 1 and its replacement with one that erased all traces of allegations with references to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder. There were accusations that this new statutory declaration could have been due to intimidation or inducement, and was done on his own free will. Bala's first lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu said he was not able to get in touch with Bala despite repeated phone calls.The Malaysian police said on Sunday 6 July that they have asked Interpol to help find the private investigator who has been reported missing since making explosive claims linking the deputy premier to a murder. Bala's newphew has filed a missing person's report, saying the investigator and his family had disappeared.

The Case

She was shot twice in the head and her body blown up with plastic explosives.

28-year-old Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu was allegedly killed after she demanded US $500,000 ($770,000) from her former lover, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda to provide medical treatment for their sick son.

She had arrived in Kualar Lumpur with two other Mongolian women on Oct 8 last year, and had went to Abdul Razak's office and house several times to look for him but was rebuffed by his security guards.

After she arrived, she apparently hired a private detective to find out more about her lover. She was also reported to have sent him many SMS messages.

Mr Abdul Razak Baginda, former lover of Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu

On Oct 19, she received a phone call to meet Abdul Razak at his house. When she showed up outside his house, she was allegedly seized by several men, bundled into a car and driven away. That was the last time she was seen alive.

Abdul Razak has been charged with abetting her murder while two policemen from an elite unit, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30, and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35, are accused of murdering her.

What happenned ?

7 NOV 2006

Police at Subang Dam, where the bone fragments of Mongolian model, Miss Altantuya Shaariibuu were found Police find bone fragments, believed to belong to Ms Shaariibuu at a ditch in a secluded area near a dam in Puncak Alam.

Three police officers have been arrested in connection with the case. They include a chief inspector who is a member of the security detail of a Cabinet minister, a corporal attached to a commando squad responsible for protecting VIPs and a woman anti-vice detective. Two private investigators are also remanded.

Ms Shaariibuu's former lover, 46-year-old Mr Abdul Razak Baginda is picked up for questioning. A court allowed the police to detain him for five more days to help in investigations.

9 NOV 2006

Location where parts of Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu's body were found.

10 of Ms Shaariibuu's relatives arrived late amid tight security at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Her father, Mr Shaariibuu Setev, is believed to be among them. They evaded a waiting media contingent and were taken immediately to the Kuala Lumpur Police headquarters to assist in investigations.

Ms Shaariibuu's father is expected to provide DNA samples to facilitate the identification of her remains.

Meanwhile, police investigators continued to scour the secluded site outside the city where the bone fragments were found for more evidence.

Some of her personal effects, said to be a ring, a ear-ring and a wristwatch, have also been recovered.

But it is not known if these items, which are being used to help identify her, were recovered from her hotel room or the site where her body was found.

Investigators also brought Mr Abdul Razak yesterday to his office near the Petronas Twin Towers.

They are believed to have seized documents and CCTV footage from his office.

15 NOV 2006

Two policemen from an elite unit- Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 31, and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 36 are charged with murdering Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu The results of DNA tests have confirmed that the bone fragments came from Miss Shaariibuu.

Two Malaysian policemen were charged with the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. Both men, who appeared tired but calm, were taken to court in handcuffs and nodded when asked if they understood the charge. No plea was recorded. The accused are with an elite police tactical unit called the Unit Tindakan Khas (Special Forces Unit), which protects VIPs.

Another police officer who was detained, an unnamed female corporal, was released on bail.

The next day, on 16 Nov, Abdul Razak was charged with abetting the murder of a Mongolian model and is facing a possible death sentence.

24 NOV 2006

Abdul Razak Baginda was freed on bail yesterday after he pleaded not guilty to conspiring to murder a Mongolian woman.

It was a surprising decision, as those implicated in murder cases in Malaysia are rarely allowed to be freed on bail as conviction carries a mandatory death sentence. Abdul Razak appeared frail and dazed in the dock, but smiled and hugged his lawyer and family on news that he would be released.

Under the terms of his release, Abdul Razak's passport was impounded, but neither he nor his family was required to deposit the 1 million ringgit with the court. Instead, Abdul Razak's brother, Rani Abdullah, and sister, Rohani Abdullah – who signed the sureties for his release – would be fined 100,000 ringgit each time he failed to make a court appearance.

Abdul Razak 'hired private eye to keep ex-lover away'

19 June 2007

Balasubramaniam Perumal, 47, a private investigator who was hired by Abdul Razak Baginda. He is the first witness for the prosecution of the Mongolian model murder trial

Abdul Razak 'hired private eye to keep ex-lover away'

Lead prosecutor Tun Majid Tun Hamzah told the court yesterday that Abdul Razak met Ms Altantuya in 2004, and had a relationship with her until August 2005.

He used to give her money but stopped early last year. She came several times to Malaysia to hound him for money and hired a private investigator to find out where he lived.

In her final, and fateful, encounter with Abdul Razak, the prosecution alleged, she went to Kuala Lumpur with two Mongolian women friends on Oct 8 last year.

She tried to meet Abdul Razak several times at his office, but he refused to see her.

According to the prosecutor, she left him several notes demanding money and also threatened his daughter, Rowena.

Yesterday, the trial's first witness, Mr Balasubramaniam Perumal, a private investigator hired by Abdul Razak to keep Ms Altantuya away from him and his family, told the court that the political analyst had asked him to follow his teenage daughter to her school in early October last year.

He said he also chaperoned Rowena home before leaving for Abdul Razak's office to accompany the latter home.

Abdul Razak Baginda and his wife Mazlinda Makhzan trying to make their way past the media crowd at the High Court in Shah Alam.

However, Mr Tun Majid said, Ms Altantuya kept harassing Abdul Razak.

The political analyst then asked a friend who was a senior police officer for advice. The friend introduced him to Azilah.

According to Mr Tun Majid, a note was found in Azilah's office listing the name of Abdul Razak's private investigator, the place where Ms Altantuya had stayed and her number.

There was also evidence to show that Azilah and Sirul Azhar were in the lobby of Hotel Malaya in Chinatown, where Ms Altantuya and her friends were staying.

The prosecutor said that when Ms Altantuya went to Abdul Razak's house on Oct 19 last year, the latter called Azilah.

Azilah and Sirul Azhar arrived at Abdul Razak's house in a car, and bundled her away.

"There is witness evidence to show that they were the last persons to be seen with the deceased," Mr Tun Majid said.

Evidence will also be adduced to show that she was taken to the forest clearing, where she was killed.

According to the prosecutor, Ms Altantuya had told her friends that if she did not return to the hotel within two or three hours that night, they should lodge a police report.

She had also filed a report less than eight hours before her disappearance which stated that if something should happen to her, the police should look for "Razak Baginda".

The prosecutor's account of the events is remarkably similar to Abdul Razak's own account stated in his affidavit filed in January this year.

The one key difference between the prosecution's case and the defence's cases is that Abdul Razak had insisted he told Azilah not to do anything to harm Ms Altantuya.

So, the case is likely to turn on this point: What exactly did Abdul Razak tell Azilah to do?

Mongolian asked for US$500,000 in cash, says witness

20 June 2007

Yesterday, on Day Two of the trial, Abdul Razak's private investigator, Mr Balasubramaniam Perumal, recalled vividly Ms Altantuya's last days.

Mr Balasubramaniam, 47, the first witness for the prosecution, told the court that two days before she died, Ms Altantuya had introduced herself to him as "Aminah" and told him to convey her demands to Abdul Razak, whom she called a "bastard" at one point after he refused to see her at his house.

The private investigator said he first saw Ms Altantuya and two other Mongolian women on Oct 16 last year, when they stood outside Abdul Razak's house.

Mr Balasubramaniam said she would wait for her former lover outside his office building in downtown Kuala Lumpur nearly every day.

Mr Ang Chong Beng, had been hired by Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu as a private investigator before she was murdered.

She even got her own private detective, one Ang Chong Beng, to find out where Abdul Razak lived.

She then took to staking out at his house in the upscale Damansara Heights in the last days of her life, he said.

On Oct 17 last year, Ms Altantuya turned up at Abdul Razak's house again.

She was making a scene outside but Abdul Razak did not go out to see her, and the private investigator called the police, who took her away to the Brickfields Police Station nearby.

Mr Balasubramaniam went to the station on his own and saw an incensed Ms Altantuya was trying to lodge a report against Abdul Razak.

But Mr Ang, who was there with her, advised her against it and, instead, wanted to negotiate a settlement with Abdul Razak.

It was then that Ms Altantuya demanded US$500,000 and three air tickets to Mongolia, presumably for her and the two women with her.

When Mr Balasubramaniam told Abdul Razak about her demands, Abdul Razak said he would discuss the matter with his friend, a senior police officer, who had later introduced him to Azilah, the co-accused.

The following day, Oct 19, Ms Altantuya turned up at Abdul Razak's house a little past 7pm in a taxi.

The political analyst was out to dinner, but Mr Balasubramaniam was at the house, and she waved and left in the cab. He said she returned again half an hour later, and this time got out of the cab.

By then, he recalled, he had told Abdul Razak about the visit. "He asked me to hold a conversation with Altantuya as the police were coming to arrest her," he said.

Mr Balasubramaniam recalled that he had done as Abdul Razak asked and chatted with Ms Altantuya. The woman told him that her father was dead, her mother was in hospital with cancer and her brother had gambled away their apartment in Mongolia, so she had gone to Malaysia to get money from Abdul Razak.

The private investigator said Ms Altantuya also told him that she could not pay for her stay at the Hotel Malaya in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

As they chatted, he added that two men whom he assumed were policemen drove up in a Proton car. The driver of the car told Mr Balasubramaniam that he was going to take Ms Altantuya with him.

He said another man and a woman were also in the car.

When Mr Balasubramaniam met Abdul Razak the next day, Oct 20, for payment, he asked him about Ms Altantuya. He said Abdul Razak claimed he did not know where she had been taken.

'Harassment did not end' with Altantuya's death

21 June 2007

A day after Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu was blown up, Abdul Razak continued to receive threatening messages that had begun before her disappearance. The threats, sent to his mobile phone, frightened him so badly that he turned to the private investigator he had paid to settle matters with Ms Altantuya.

The private investigator, Mr Balasubramaniam Perumal, testified that the harassment continued even after her horrific death allegedly at the hands of two policemen who were said to be acting on Abdul Razak's instructions.

Boxes of evidence for the trial

As a result, Mr Balasubramaniam said, the political analyst rehired him to protect himself from the Mongolian woman's family.

Mr Balasubramaniam said that the day after Ms Altantuya was last seen alive, Abdul Razak made the final payment of RM2,000 (S$880) for his services. But the very next day, he was called into action again.

This time, he told the packed court yesterday, it was because "Amy", a relative of Ms Altantuya, had sent the political analyst a threatening text message.

The contents of the SMS were not read out in court, but Maxis, a Malaysian mobile phone company, revealed that a message, sent from a foreign number to Mr Balasubramaniam's phone on Oct 21 last year, read: "You sick xxxxx listen to me carefull...I'm gonna call his wife...already report to Mongolian consulate in malay...u chicken shits are in big problem...I'll do my best I promise."

It was not only "Amy" who kept up the pressure on Abdul Razak, Mr Balasubramaniam said. Abdul Razak, he said, had called him for help after 11pm on Oct 20 last year because Ms Uuriintuya Gal-Orchir and Ms Namiraa Gerelmaa, friends who had accompanied Ms Altantuya to Malaysia, were outside his house.

They were shouting and demanding to see Ms Altantuya, as they believed she was being held there. Mr Balasubramaniam rushed to the house after calling the police.

Razak Baginda's wife Mazlinda Makhzan (2nd frm left) , his daughter Rowena Abdul Razak (3rd frm left) and his brother Abdul Rani (in blue shirt), as well as other relatives and friends were seen waving to him on Wed.

When the police arrived, he told them that he believed Ms Altantuya had been arrested the night before.

She had allegedly been taken away by the two policemen who are now charged with blowing her up with explosives in a jungle clearing near Shah Alam. The private detective said that he only learnt of Ms Altantuya's death on Nov 1 last year when he was called to an identification parade at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

There, he was asked to pick out the man he had seen driving her away from Abdul Razak's house on Oct 19 last year, the last time she was seen alive.

Mr Balasubramaniam identified Azilah Hadri, 30, a policeman from the Special Action Forces, from the line-up as the man who took Ms Altantuya away.

Did private eye's assistant have affair with Mongolian woman?

22 June 2007

Mr P. Balasubramaniam, a private eye retained by analyst Abdul Razak Baginda to keep Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu away from him, revealed that he was told that his assistant was "too close" to the Mongolian woman and her two friends.

Witness: Mr Suras Kumar Kanapathy, an assistant to Mr P Balasubramaniam, the private investigator working for Abdul Razak Baginda, who is accused of abetting the murder of Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He said Abdul Razak asked him to sack his assistant although he did not know if the assistant really had an affair with one of the three women.

During cross-examination by the accused's lawyer Wong Khian Keong, Mr Balasubramaniam said that Abdul Razak had asked him to sack his assistant Suras Kumar Kanapathy on Oct 18 last year because he was "too close" to Ms Altantuya and her two friends who had come to Malaysia with her.

He met the Mongolian women on Oct 9 when he was sent by Mr Balasubramaniam to speak to them at the lobby of Abdul Razak's office building.

Mr Suras broke the ice by asking them for a light for his cigarette, Mr Balasubramaniam said in his testimony on Monday.

He, however, confirmed that Abdul Razak had asked him if Mr Suras had spoken to Ms Altantuya and the two women at the office building.

"I stopped his services because I was told to do so by the accused," Mr Balasubramaniam said.

Altantuya gave me emergency list, says cousin

23 June 2007

On the fifth day of this trial, Ms Namiraa Gerelmaa, 23, second cousin of Ms Altantuya who accompanied her on her fateful trip to Malaysia last October, said her cousin had given her a list of phone numbers to call for emergencies.

She said Ms Altantuya gave her the list before she made a solo trip to Abdul Razak's house on Oct 19 last year in yet another bid to see him and allegedly demand money.

All three women had arrived in Malaysia on Oct 8 last year and shared a room in Hotel Malaya in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown.

Ms Namiraa Gerelmaa, 23, second cousin of Ms Altantuya

Ms Namiraa said they made several trips to Abdul Razak's office building but she could not remember the dates. Speaking in Mongolian via a translator. Ms Namiraa said she and a friend, Ms Gal-Orchir Uuriintuya, came to Malaysia to take a language course while Ms Altantuya wanted to look for Abdul Razak.

She said that, on the night of Oct 19, the three of them went to Abdul Razak's house in the posh neighbourhood of Damansara Heights.

There, they met Mr P. Balasubramaniam, a private eye hired by Abdul Razak to keep Ms Altantuya away. Mr Balasubramaniam told them that the political analyst was not home.

The three returned to their hotel, but Ms Altantuya told Ms Namiraa and Ms Uuriintuya that she wanted to go back again to Abdul Razak's house "to wish him Happy Deepavali".

Ms Altantuya told them she wanted to go alone because she believed that he might see her if she did so. Ms Namiraa said that Ms Altantuya called her later to let her know that she had reached Abdul Razak's house.

She also said they kept calling Ms Altantuya's mobile phone that night but could not get through to her. They managed to reach Mr Balasubramaniam, who said he did not know where she was.

The worried girls sought help from the hotel manager who advised them to lodge a police report. They asked Mr Ang Chong Beng, a private investigator hired by Ms Altantuya to track down Abdul Razak, for help.

Ms Namiraa remembered the list of numbers, and called the one belonging to Ms Burmaa Oyunchimeg, a cousin of Ms Altantuya studying in Hong Kong. She told Ms Burmaa in Mongolian over the phone that Ms Altantuya had gone missing, and Ms Burmaa, who speaks English, spoke to Mr Ang to tell him what had happened.

Mr Ang took Ms Namiraa to lodge a police report which was recorded in Malay. Yesterday, Ms Namiraa disputed several parts of the report in Malay, which had to be translated into English first for the Mongolian interpreter, who then translated it into Mongolian for Ms Namiraa.

Ms Namiraa then said she returned to Mongolia without knowing what had happened to Ms Altantuya.She added that she learned later through Mongolian TV reports that her friend had been "brutally murdered, shot twice and her body blown up".

Immigration records deleted: Altantuya's friend

27 June 2007

Ms Uuriintuya Gal-Orchir, 30, friend of Altantuya Shaariibuu

An unexpected twist yesterday stirred excitement in a Malaysian court when the friend of a murdered Mongolian interpreter claimed that their entry into Malaysia had mysteriously vanished from official records.

Ms Uuriintuya Gal-Orchir, 30, said she was told by officials that there was no record that she, slain Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and their friend Namiraa Gerelmaa entered the country on Oct 8 last year.

Ms Uuriintuya said two policemen questioned her for two hours on whether she entered Malaysia illegally, before allowing her to leave.

Lead prosecutor Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah and the defence lawyers protested repeatedly that this was irrelevant to the trial.

They asked for this part of her testimony to be deleted from court records but lawyer Karpal Singh, who is monitoring the trial for the Mongolian family and government, insisted it remain on record.

Judge Mohd Zaki Md Yasin allowed it to stay on record eventually.

Meanwhile, Ms Uuriintuya also identified a silver watch, earrings and a ring worn by Ms Altantuya on the day she went missing, and was allegedly killed.

She said Ms Altantuya had told her the diamond ring was a present from her boyfriend, and she assumed that Ms Altantuya meant Abdul Razak.

Mongolian victim 'claimed she married Abdul Razak'

28 June 2007

Ms Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, told her private detective, Mr Ang Chong Beng, that she was married to prominent political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

She told him that she wanted to track down her "husband" and would expose "everything" if Abdul Razak did not pay her US$500,000 (S$770,000).

Mr Ang, 56, said she paid him US$600 to track down Abdul Razak last September. He said she told him she married Abdul Razak, 47, a close associate of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, more than two years ago in Hong Kong, although she did not show him proof of the marriage.

Murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu

He said he regarded her demand for US$500,000 as a matter between husband and wife, and that if Abdul Razak "did not want her any more, he should pay".

He also said Ms Altantuya told him that if Abdul Razak did not pay up, "she will tell everything to Razak's wife, his daughter Rowena, TV3, reporters, and the whole world".

He said she also told him she had a son from another relationship in Mongolia, and the child needed medical attention. Abdul Razak yesterday denied being married to her.

He told reporters during a break in the trial that he had asked his lawyers to verify with the Hong Kong registry of marriages that no such marriage had ever taken place.

Mr Ang said Ms Altantuya called him on Oct 19, the day she went missing, to say she had received a telephone call and would be going to Abdul Razak's house that evening.

Mr Ang, a private investigator for 22 years, kept his back to the public gallery and shielded his profile with his hand throughout his testimony. He also covered his face when confronted by press photographers outside the courtroom.

He protested when policeman Sirul Azhar's lawyer Ahmad Zaidi Zainal asked him to face the lawyers while testifying. He said press artists in the court might sketch a portrait of him for publication. That would mean he would have to stop working as a private investigator as the job required him to keep a low profile, he said.